POLITICS RACKING CHILE UNIVERSITY

SANTIAGO, Chile, Nov. 15— A political fight on national party lines is tearing apart the University of Chile, this country's principal institution of higher learning.

The university conflict, which has disrupted studies for weeks at the university, of 60,000 students, reflects the growing struggle for power between Marxists and non‐Marxists in all areas of Chilean affairs, including unions, universities, neighborhood committees and Congress.

Edgardo Boenlnger, 46 years old, the elected Rector of the University of Chile, represents the non‐Marxist sectors of professors and students. They, are resisting an attempt by the Marxist majority on the 100member university council to dominate all aspects of university life.

At issue are appointments of professors, granting of scholarships, adoption of programs of study, and the management of news and commentary on the university's television channel. The university's is one of three national stations.

Dr. Boeninger was re‐elected to a second term as rector in July, with the support in the university of the Christian Democratic and National parties, as well as of independents. It was a severe setback for the Communist and Socialist parties, the backbone of the leftwing Government of President Salvador Allende Gossens.

However, the university Marxists won a slight majority on the university council, where three of the 100 members are appointed by Dr. Allende as his representatives.

The impasse over policies and management that has developed between the rector and the council came to a head when the council decided to incorporate the law school, whose faculty was controlled by non‐Marxists, into a new school of economic and social sciences where the Marxists would have control.

Students and professors opposed to the change seized the law school on Nov. 21. They also took over the schools of dentistry, forestry, and commercial arts.

Council Debates Are Heated

Since the law school was seized, debates in the council have been violent.

In one session, Victor Barberis, a Marxist professor of basic sciences, shouted at opposition members: “If you think you are going to start another Spanish civil war here, look out, because in Chile it will be different.”

Alejandro Rojas, a Communist and the president of the university students federation, said at a council meeting: “If you [the opposition] try to occupy the university, we, the student movement, will crush you.”

But Jaime Hanes, the student who led those who seized the law school, said he was confident that the Christian Democratic candidates would win in student federation elections this month, “if the Marxists don't rig the vote count”

Christian Democrats have won control of the Santiago secondary‐school student federation and have triumphed in provincial centers, such as Talca and Chillan. But in those provincial schools, the Marxists have refused to accept the results, charging irregularities,

At the law school today, Dr. Boeninger told a cheering assembly of students and professors that the university fight had to he won “if democracy is to survive in Chile.”

“The issue,” he had said recently, “is whether the university is to be a pluralistic, critical institution at the service of the country or a university at the service of a particular ideology.”

Dr. Boeninger, an engineer and en economist, was Director ofthe Budget in the Christian Democratic Government of former President Eduardo Frei Montalva before he was elected to the university post as an independent.

The rector, and the professors and students who support him, have decided to demand a plebiscite within the university on whether the council should be retained or replaced.

The Marxist majority has rejected that proposal and has begun measures that invaded the jurisdiction over university management reserved to the rector, deans, and academic councils.

Meanwhile, students are losing weeks of classes. In one case, a popular course on LatinAmerican economic integration has been able to meet only three times since the school year began.

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A version of this archives appears in print on November 16, 1971, on Page 8 of the New York edition with the headline: POLITICS RACKING CHILE UNIVERSITY. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe